SCO held its annual Faculty/Staff Appreciation Day this week. The event recognized years of service for a number of faculty and staff. Among those honored were:

• Drs. Al Fors and Glen Steele (not pictured), 40 years
• Velma Dickson, Kathy Harrington, and Amos Pearl, 35 years
• Jerry Clay and Gail Killingsworth, 30 years
• Drs. Betty Harville and John Sharpe, 25 years
• Lisa Anderson and Dr. Tressa Eubank, 20 years
• Dr. Aaron Kerr, Paul Kish, Debra Mooradian, Dr. Beth Sparrow, and Karen Stevens, 10 years
• Dr. Janette Dumas, Ann Fields, Harold Lashlee, Scott Lyon, Debra Moore, and Dr. Andrew Rixon, 5 years

Visit SCO’s Flickr gallery to see all the group photos and other photos from the luncheon that was held. Congratulations to these faculty and staff members for their dedication and service to optometric education.

This past weekend, SCO’s Community Outreach Program was privileged to be one of 30-plus health and wellness organizations at Congressman Steve Cohen’s Health Fair at Whitehaven High School.

Dr. Jill Pitts and a group of clinical interns participated by offering vision screenings and information about eye and vision health. Senior Intern Michael Desautels, ‘10, is pictured working with Taylor M. Burton, age four.

SCO’s team also enjoyed meeting Congressman Cohen when he visited the booth. Earlier in the week, the congressman cited SCO as a great optometry school and one of the positive things about Memphis.

View photos from the event in SCO’s Flickr gallery.

Drs. Cynthia Heard, Sharon Lee and Tressa Eubank from the faculty traveled to the STAR Center in Jackson, Tennessee, to put on a CE program entitled, The Vision Rehabilitation Spectrum: Low Vision to Brain Injury. Nearly 40 ODs, MDs and technicians attended the event at STAR.

Since January 2008, SCO has worked with the Star Center and treated 243 low vision patients. Pictured from L-R are Drs. Heard, Lee, Anna Schlessman, Eubank; STAR Center Founder and Director Margaret Doumitt, STAR Center supporters Drs. Charlene and Fred Burnett (SCO alumni), and Dr. Brad Priester, an ophthalmologist and referral source for low vision at the STAR Center.

To learn more about the STAR Center, visit http://www.starcenter.tn.org/.

This past week, SCO welcomed Stop Hunger Now back to campus. The organization works to feed the hungry in impoverished regions and countries. Aided by the Memphis Rotary Club, dozens of SCO faculty, staff and students volunteered over two days of work, including a Saturday.

The volunteers included Dr. Aaron Kerr, seen here sorting rice. When their work finished, the group had packaged more than 53,000 nutritious meals, most likely bound to help residents of Haiti.

To see more photos from the event, visit SCO’s Flickr gallery.

This past Saturday, SCO’s third-year students attended a Career Advocate Program hosted by Brad Williams, OD, FAAO, from the Williams Group. The event was designed to complement the practice management course taught by Dr. Gerald Eisenstatt.

Dr. Williams shared practice management and business strategies. The program was sponsored by the American Optometric Association and The Vision Care Institute, a Johnson & Johnson Company.

Linda Kinney, a 15-year veteran of SCO’s Library, retired earlier this month. She was honored with a reception on February 18. A large number of staff and faculty attended, and Linda was joined by a group of her friends as she opened retirement gifts from her colleagues.

Of special interest, Linda’s husband, John, sang in a barbershop quartet to serenade Linda and the group. The couple met while working together in a local stage musical production several years ago. Linda also performs as a member of the Sweet Adelines singing group.

Congratulations to Linda Kinney for her devotion to optometric education. The entire SCO community extends its best wishes upon her retirement!

SCO President Richard W. Phillips, OD, FAAO, has been elected to the Executive Committee for the Tennessee Independent Colleges and Universities Association (TICUA).

TICUA membership includes each independent, non-profit, regionally accredited college and university in Tennessee with a traditional arts and science curriculum as well as institutions that specialize in fields such as medicine, optometry, dentistry and fine arts.

In recent months, SCO has launched a recycling and green initiative at the college. To learn more, here’s the “Seeing Green Initiative” e-flyer that was distributed on campus:

SGI_Flyer_February

Special thanks to Dr. Jason Duncan from the faculty for assisting with SCO’s green effort.

SCO students from Gamma Omicron, a local service fraternity, spent the afternoon of Saturday, Feb. 13, working a two-mile stretch along Goodman Road in Southaven.

Joined by some other students from SCO’s SVOSH chapter and faculty adviser, Dr. Beth Sparrow, the group devoted two and a half hours working as part of their quarterly clean-up project. Several years ago, Gamma Omicron chose the spot as part of the Adopt-A-Highway program.

SCO’s SVOSH student chapter is in need of at least one doctor to accompany students to Mexico this upcoming May. If you’re interested in learning more about this upcoming mission trip, please contact Kyle Dohrman, ‘11, SVOSH President, at kdohrman@sco.edu.

SVOSH is also looking to build relationships with SCO alumni who were members of SVOSH when they were students. “We’re hoping to network and reconnect with SVOSH alumni,” said Dohrman.

By networking with those who are familiar with and supportive of SVOSH’s mission, SCO’s student chapter hopes to benefit from these graduates’ experience and expertise in planning mission trips, fundraising and other SVOSH activities.

If you are interested in providing your service in May or finding other ways you could share your experience as a former member of SVOSH, today’s students would like to hear from you.